Tuesday, 1 July 2014

Good morning all. Today sees a new challenge begin at Our Creative Corner. The lovely and hugely talented Astrid is our host this month and here's what she has to say about her challenge:

'Making flowers can be a labour of love, but the satisfaction of adding some homemade flowers to your project, outweighs the effort it might take. Combining your flowers with some hand dyed ribbon, makes your project even more special. So for this challenge we would like you to create with homemade flowers and hand dyed ribbon. You can make whatever you like, be it card, tag or an altered object. All we ask is that you embellish it with your own flowers and ribbon. There are many tutorials for making flowers to be found all over the internet, so we hope you'll have fun with this challenge!'
We are very honoured to have Nicecrane Designs as the sponsor for our randomly drawn prize this month.

In addition, every month the host at Our Creative Corner selects a Top Talent and their Top Three entries - you never know, it might be you! As usual we will be having a guest designer spot this month. Watch out for the announcement of the winners from my Flaming June challenge last month. In addition, some of the DT will be doing Sponsor Spotlight posts for our generous sponsor this month, Nicecrane Designs.

Here's what I've made for Astrid's wonderful challenge. I hope you like it:

Unashamedly girly with flowers and gorgeous pink plus a little grunge of course!

The flower was perhaps the most complex part of this project. It was die cut from card stamped with a collage stamp in grey versafine. Several layers and colours and DI followed. A stencil, some versamark ink and clear EP was used to create depth to the flower layers. DecoArt crackle glaze was then applied to each layer followed by DecoArt Antiquing Cream in Patina. The antiquing cream is rubbed off until you are happy with the result. When dry, buff it with a soft cloth for that lovely sheen. The edges of the die cut layers had versamark ink randomly added followed by Stampendous Aged Teal embossing powder. Each layer was then shaped and finally assembled to make the flower.

The centre of the flower was created using some hand dyed ribbon (to match the colours of the flower) and a blind cord tidy which looks rather good placed upside as shown. Some of the hand dyed ribbon was pushed into the cord tidy to complete the look. The ribbon was dyed with Distress Inks and some shimmer spray. It was fully dried with a heat gun.

The card was prepared for stamping with a light coat of DI. This was followed by a second colour which was used to stamp a butterfly image with a final sponge of the original colour. The image was stamped using jet black archival. The DI was removed from the whites of the eyes and the lips with a waterbrush.

The stamped black image didn't quite reach to the edges of the die cut cabinet card so some tissue tape was added and coloured to match the main background shade. A Krylon pen was used to the edge the cabinet card.

A stencil and some versamark was used with EP to add detail onto the tissue tape.

The top of the hanging is finished with a die cut piece. This was painted with gesso followed by one coat of red magenta (from the DecoArt Media fluid acrylic range which have now been released), two coats of translucent white (same range - this paint is a MUST have!). Once dry, the layers were randomly sanded to reveal the red magenta. Next, DecoArt crackle glaze followed and finally, the antiquing cream as used on the flower.

Rusty wire is used as a hanger and was attached on each side to die cut topper. The long ends were curled around a paintbrush handle.

You can't see it in this photograph but the embossed areas were given a light coat of DecoArt Media Interference Paint in turquoise. when it catches the light it just gleams.

The bottom edge of the hanging was finished with another die cut piece which was finished in the same manner as the one described above. Another piece of my hand dyed ribbon was used here to attach the die cut to the hanging.

Hope you liked this project. It's always fun to make your own flowers and there's no limit to how many you make, what you make them out of or where you use them!

So, it's your turn now to get making those flowers and hand dyed ribbon and use them on a project which you can link up over at Our Creative Corner. Can't wait to see what you come up with!

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About Me

We all say it but I truly have been 'making' things ever since I can remember!
I taught Textiles in various Secondary Schools for nearly 27 years and loved it. I'm now retired and lucky enough to have lots of time to indulge in my passion for crafting, particularly mixed media style projects. I now live in the beautiful county of Suffolk which is a world away from my previous home in South London!